Students Union Annual Report

Annual Report

Students’ Union Annual Report

2012/13 Reflections from Carys Rhiannon Thomas (President 2013/2014)

As the Students’ Union is a separate legal entity from the University, we had to replicate the merger process in its entirety. In order to facilitate the huge amount of work that was required, a Task and Finish group was formed consisting of representatives from both the University of Glamorgan Union and the University of Wales Newport Students’ Union, members of Trustee Board, the University, NUS, and NUS Wales1. It was clear from the outset that the only way to complete the work required was to identify the key areas that needed resolution and to put these within the merger timeframe. The areas identified were:

Corporate Governance: Staff structure of the new Union, due diligence process, business planning, costs of incorporation, pension issues, contracts, TUPE transfer of UWN SU staff, integration agreement.

Political Governance: Student representative structure of the new Union, drafting of transitional constitution and standing orders, drafting of full constitution and standing orders post-merger, formation of new trustee board.

Student Engagement: structure of sports teams, communication with current students on all proposals coming from the Task and Finish group, updates to students on the merger process, social media merger sites.

The areas above were given to specific members to take the ‘lead’, with staff co-ordinating the corporate and political governance areas, and Sabbatical Officers leading on student engagement.

As Newport Students’ Union ceased to exist at the point of merger, it was imperative that all of the work was completed by the 11th April. In addition, due to the legal framework in which all Students’ Unions are governed, it was not possible to operate as two separate Students’ Unions after merger which created additional pressures for completion of formal business. All of the above areas were completed and finalised by the 6th April, which ensured a week was allocated pre-merger to be at the Caerleon campus. This enabled the Union to support colleagues through the difficult few days pre and post merger.

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The Union is currently undergoing centralisation of its processes, which is proving challenging. It is also imperative that the Central Resources computers are also centralised and installed with the same programmes, in order to create effective finance systems and processes.

Summary

The volume of work required to complete, and complex nature of, the projects undertaken by the Union this year has proven challenging, and at times extremely daunting. However the successful completion of the projects, and the ongoing work necessary for successful integration of services across all campuses, reflects the commitment and dedication of both the student officers and staff that work for the Union.

Team work

Being the first year of the implemented merger, it was crucial that we had an elected team of sabbaticals, who were confident going in to the forthcoming year. I knew the individuals I would work with and had faith in the abilities of those individuals. With only a month of officer turn over it was very much a situation where we would have to learn on the job. We knew we had to ensure that we had a strong team to get us through this, so we made sure we had team training and got to know one another. I can confidently say that without a united team, there isn’t unity or support and moral can hit rock bottom. The team get along very well and have agreed to support, help, communicate, trust and have a laugh with each other. It’s begun to work already, not only are we becoming great friends, but have proved that together we can achieve things. Thank you to the Previous Sabbatical officers Alex, Ashely and Sarah; and welcome to the new officers Richard, Sarah and Verity.

From left to right: Carys Rhiannon Thomas (President), Richard Queree (VP Cardiff) Sarah Valkenborghs (VP Pontypridd) Verity Worthington (VP Newport)

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New Student Council structure

With the proposed merger, a new student council needed to be structured. The changes to Council that were decided lay in the hands of our sabbatical team and union staff. Once a structure had been proposed, the decision to implement it went to the current Student Council.

The problem with Council in previous years was a lack of structure and method of building a working relationship with those who came to council and attendance use to be sporadic. I believe that with the new structure employed, which expands to all three regions will eliminate the risk of non-attendance. The new system was written into the Constitution and Standing Orders upon the announcement of the merger and will be carried out as strong, representational and structured body of democracy in the Union.

The Structure:

Curriculum

Developments / Strategic Projects

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 Student Led Teaching Awards: The Students’ Union successfully bid for funding from NUS and the HEA to deliver a Student Led Teaching Awards scheme. The main premise behind the implementation of the scheme was to provide an extension of the excellent academic student engagement processes, and give all students an opportunity to publicly say what they value about their teaching experience at the university. We hoped the awards would empower students to express what they value most in learning and teaching, whilst allowing them to shape the provision for learning within the Institution. The SLTAs provided the opportunity for students to highlight what they perceive as best practice with their learning, and created a mechanism for this to be shared across the different faculties and campuses of the University. The SLTA awards were hosted on two separate campuses, recognising the two previous institutions achievements. Both Faculty Winners and Winners of Winners were presented with their awards at the Glamorgan Student Lead Teaching Awards on the 24th April and the Newport Student Lead Teaching Awards on the 3rd May. The students who had nominated the faculty winners were also present at the awards, so they had the opportunity to see the scheme come full circle and realize that their nominations had a direct result on deciding the winners. When deciding on the winners, it was emphasized from the very start of the scheme, that these would be selected based on the quality of the nominations received, rather than the quantity received for individual lecturers. The overall Winner of Winners was as follows:

Glamorgan Regions o Best Lecturer Taught - Larissa Nelson, HeSaS. o Best Lecturer Research – Nigel Stanton, AT. o Best Lecturer International – Christopher Thomas, CCI.

Newport Regions

o Awesome Team Winner – History Team Highly Commended – Disability Team o Art of Teaching Winner – Kathy Evans (FESS) Highly Commended – Phillip Cowan (FAB) o Extra Mile Winner – Sue Peter Highly Commended – Rebecca Wilson

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 Student Rep Awards - On Tuesday 24th April 2013, over 100 students came along to the Glamorgan Region Student Rep Award ceremony to find out who had won the awards. These awards were presented by Sian Taylor, Spike Sheppard, Denize McIntyre, Ashley Price and Sarah Valkenborghs. The winners are as follows:

 HESAS Course Rep of the Year - Denis Wakeham  AT Course Rep of the Year – Justine Edwards  CCI Course Rep of the Year – Katie Preedy  FBS Course Rep of the Year – Louise Waddington  Course Rep of the Year – Denis Wakeham  SVR Team of the Year - Faculty of Business Society  Student Councillor of the Year - John Fisher, FBS  SVR of the Year- Glen Conbeer, CCI  Outstanding Contribution award - Carys James, FBS

 Student Rep Awards - On Tuesday 3rd May 2013, over 100 students came along to the Newport Region Student Rep Award ceremony to find out who had won the awards. The winners are as follows:

 Course Reps of the year Cat Brown Hannah Wardill  Individual Contribution as a Course Rep Nora Jones  Student Mentor of the Year Luke Davies Inspirational Student Mentor Liam McAlinden Student Mentor: Extra Mile Sam Coleman  STAR Rep of the Year Laura Morgan  STAR Rep: Outstanding contribution Joe Sciberras  STAR Rep: Extra Mile William Locke  Significant Ongoing Support Drew Burman  Outstanding Contribution in Student Support Brynley Davison  Study Skills Special Recognition Jake Buckley  Support Worker Special Recognition Kelly Gibbons  Exceptional Contribution to the Student Union Ryan Thomas  Above and Beyond for the Student Union Rhodri Roberts

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 Student Experience Award 2013 Paul Thompson

 QAA Student Advisory Board: Sian Taylor, Chief Executive Officer, was appointed to the Student Advisory Board of the QAA. The QAA recognised Sian’s experience of Quality in HE, as well as a background in representing the student voice. Sian is the only Member from Wales to sit on this Board.

 Institutional Review into Foundation Degrees – the Union has completed its’ Student Written Submission for inclusion in the QAA Institutional Review of Foundation Degrees. The report focused on the student view of the quality of their learning experience when undertaking their studies, areas of identified best practice, and areas that could be improved. Focus groups were held with students at Ystrad Mynach and Merthyr College, Coleg Morgannwg (Aberdare, Rhondda and Nantgarw campuses), as well as at Glamorgan. The report was shared with the University prior to being submitted to the QAA. The Institutional Review is due to take place in March 2013.

Union Achievements / Events

 The Glamorgan Region AU Dinner: was held in the Union, on Thursday 26th April and enjoyed by all. Winners included:  Team of the Year – Women’s Football  Club of the Year – Basketball  Achievement Award – Carys Rhiannon Thomas (Women’s Rugby Union)

 The Newport Region AU Dinner was held in the Caerleon campus, on the 12th of April and was enjoyed by all.

 Societies Dinner was held in the Basement on the 23rd April. Buffet food and beverages were served, before presentations of the awards and disco. Anime manga and cosplay won society of the year. Many other individuals won awards for their contribution to societies on the night too.

 Membership development: includes sports and societies participation, fundraising and volunteering, and democratic participation.

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 Competitive Sport – The Union has increased participation in BUCS this year, with the Cardiff & Pontypridd region now entering 47 teams in varying competitions, as well as increasing individual entries. This is already having a positive effect on the league t able, with the Cardiff & Pontypridd Region currently sitting in 38th position. We have also increased the number of competitive teams at the Newport Region to 20.

 Campaigning – Sarah Valkenborghs, VP Student Support, is continuing to run her successful’ Don’t Drop out, Drop In’ campaign. Students thinking of dropping out of University are encouraged to meet with Sarah and talk through their options. This peer support service has proved very successful, with at least two students a week utilising this service.

 Out in Sport - The Union’s LGBT society, supported by our Sabbatical Team, attended the Sports Council for Wales ‘Out in Sport’ campaign launch . The society along with help from fellow student council members, launched activities surrounding this issue during LGBT History month in February.

 Student Engagement - Participation in Union activities continues to increase. Society membership is now around 600 students, with the number of societies run by students now numbering near 60. Student Council proved to be a success last year, with quoracy achieved at every meeting. The Student Councillors remain key to the Union’s communication with students, and are proving invaluable in keeping students’ informed of merger updates. We hope this success will continue through to next year across all three regions.

 Innovation Challenge – The Ideas Factory ran a competition during November to encourage the Union’s sports teams, clubs and societies to think creatively about entrepreneurship. The clubs and societies that registered were given the task to increase the value of plastic cups through using them in a creative way. They then had to produce a video highlighting how they would use their plastic cups. Nine entries were received, with the winning team receiving £700 and the runners up receiving £300. Women’s Rugby were the winners, with the Student Enterprise Society coming second. The winning video can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12SbgsO2RZg.

Women’s Rugby plan to use their winnings to help them with their fundraising venture ‘Bratislava or Bust’.

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 May Ball – A May ball was held at Caerleon campus this year. Acts included Headkandi and You Me at Six. The event even hosted unlimited dodgems. Students travelled from all regions for the event and saw around 700 ticket buyers.

 Our LGBT Officer Newport Region was elected as the new NUS LGBT officer.

 Safety Angels – This campaign recruited over 70 volunteers. This was the first year it ran following 4 years of meticulous planning. All volunteers were first aid trained and went out to Newport city centre every Wednesday to hand out water, aid with first aid and to be of a helping hand. The main aim was to ensure students were not left alone in Newport. The program received a nomination for the Newport region SLTA’s.

 Our SU Bar the Randy Dragon was awarded this year’s Best Bar None award. This is the third time the union have received the award.

 Our Ideas Factory Treforest Campus was awarded Most Innovative Placement.

Fundraising/Volunteering

 Live Below the line – Staff and students of the university took on the live below challenge for Oxfam. They lived off £1 a day for an entire week. You can view their blogs here: http://www.uswsu.comnews/index.php?page=article&news_id=370503.

 Earthquake Victims in China – The union and its students raised a substantial amount for those affected by the 7.0 magnitude earthquake in the Sichuan province in China. Students also arranged a remembrance event for those affected.

 Bucket Collection for Meningitis – Students took to Cardiff central station to raise money for Meningitis UK. They managed to raise a whopping £151.71.

 Comic Relief – The union ran a comic relief night, hosting a giant onesie party, where students performed a mass harlem shake. The team managed to raise £289.29 for the cause. You can watch the video here : http://youtu.be/gWxOV_q7spA

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 The Great Glamorgan Fairtrade Bake Off – A competition was held for individuals to bake a cake based on fair-trade themes and ingredients was held at the meeting house. Rhiannon Jones, one of the union staff won the competition.

 Sarah’s Cyclists - A team of cyclists, lead by our student support officer Sarah, cycled 100 miles in order to raise money for Cardiac Risk in the Young and to generate awareness of Heart Health month! The team of individuals reached 151.6 miles and raised a total of £68.04 for charity.

 National Student Money Week – Two students took on two of our sabbatical officers, in a Super market sweep in recognition of student money week. They were both given healthy, cost-effective meals to collect the ingredients for. Our student team won both the time challenge and the price challenge. You can follow this link to watch the video: http://youtu.be/eMmhyheZ4CU.

 Fairtrade Pancake Race – A pancake race was held in the Basement of the Treforest SU in recognition of fairtrade fortnight. The overall winner after the first round and then the final was Bob from the SU, who narrowly won after a disqualification from the Women's Rugby team, because of no lemon juice being added to the pancake.

 The Big Pink Bucket Collection – Staff and students took to Cardiff on mother’s day to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness.

 Women’s Rugby Calendar – The women’s rugby team bared all in a bid to raise money for charity. Their calendars sold at £3 apiece. The team raised a total of £473 which was split between Practical Action, Dementia UK and Meningitis UK.

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 Children in Need – Our Anime, Manga and Cosplay Society raised £428.30 by dressing up as book characters for children in need.

 Movember – Staff and students joined forces to raise money for prostate cancer in November. The team managed to raise a total of £2316.

 Pink Friday – In October staff and students went pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. Students with competitive games wore pink shorts and socks, staff dressed in pink and our VP Activities officer even died his beard pink!

 Santa Appeal – Building on last year’s successful partnership with the University, the Union coordinated the RCT Santa Appeal across all three campuses during November. This resulted in 170 presents donated to children identified by RCT. The presents were donated to the mayor of RCT during the annual Students’ Union Carol Concert on 7th December.

 RAG Week – Newport Region RAG Week included bake sales, clothes sales, hair and makeup, animal disco, car wash, pool tournament, human run, sponsored auction and Pablo’s RAG quiz. The Weeks events managed to bring in £620 for charity.

Commercial Services: Reviewing the commercial activity of the Students’ Union:

 Glamorgan Student Letting – The Union’s letting agency continues to grow, with over 120 houses now registered. Students are using the letting agency as their first port of call for houses, with only 40 properties left for September 2013. Landlords are also recognising the excellent service provided, and asking the agency to manage more of their properties.

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 Wedding - The Union hosted its’ first wedding in October, with the Basement used as the venue for the reception. Over 80 guests were treated to a 4 course wedding breakfast, with Cables used as a quiet room during the event. The evening saw over 250 guests attend the evening party, with all commenting on the excellent facilities on offer.  Caffe Eto - In September the Union opened its brand new Caffe Eto, on the lower ground floor offering a full range of coffees, pastries and Ice Creams. This has so far been very popular with both students and staff who want to grab a coffee on the go.

 Blackwells Book Shop - With the relocation of Glamorgan Letting to the Ground Floor, the Union has been able to provide space to ‘Blackwells’ for a small book shop on the lower ground floor.

Conclusion

The volume of work required to complete, and complex nature of, the projects undertaken by the Union this year has proven challenging, and at times extremely daunting. However the successful completion of the projects, and the ongoing work necessary for successful integration of services across all campuses, reflects the commitment and dedication of both the student officers and staff that work for the Union. I’m looking forward to continuing this work in the forthcoming academic year.

Carys Rhiannon Thomas